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Loveland avalanche victims went undetected for four hours, report says

Scott Toepfer, a member of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, takes depth measurements every 50 feet at the crown of the avalanche near Loveland Pass on Sunday. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Two of the men — Joe Timlin of Gypsum and Rick Gaukel of Estes Park — had reached a stand of trees on a knoll. Boulay was close to them. Three others were behind Boulay as the group climbed toward the northwest slopes of Mount Sniktau.

"Heard a whumpf"

The group was spread out, spacing 50 feet between each climber as they crossed the north-facing slope.

They "felt a large collapse and heard a whumpf," reads the report.

"It took several seconds for the crack to propagate uphill and release the deep slab. In those several seconds, they all ran for the far end of the slope and towards the small stand of trees," said the report.

They all knew about the danger. Windy storms had loaded north-facing slopes, raising the risk of avalanches.

Photos: Avalanche kills 5

After discussing the danger, the group had decided the safest route would be to start from Loveland Pass' uppermost switchback and traverse along a summer road and cross the Sheep Creek drainage, just above a narrow ravine.

"They aimed to avoid the more north-facing slopes which they recognized as a threat, by crossing well below the start zone, in the runout zone, to reach what they deemed safer terrain," said the avalanche center's report.

Slide debris

Just after noon Saturday — almost two hours after the slide — avalanche forecasters on highway duty with the center noticed the slide's debris while driving over Loveland Pass. The two forecasters parked and walked to the debris and searched with avalanche beacons and binoculars. They didn't find any tracks or signals.

They drove down the pass to the closed Loveland Valley ski area, where snowboarders were participating in the Rocky Mountain High Backcountry Gathering, an event that was raising money for the avalanche center. At 1:30 p.m., the forecasters asked if anyone knew of the avalanche or if anyone from the event had triggered the slide.

Several attendees raced up the pass. Two rescuers from Loveland ski patrol arrived at the avalanche debris at 1:45 p.m. At the same time, two more skiers arrived at the bottom of the debris pile. They all began scanning the debris field for beacon signals.

Tangled beneath Boulay were his friends Timlin and accomplished guide Gaukel. When Boulay was found, only his left forearm was free. He had used it to scrape snow from his face to breathe.

Halsted Morris, the avalanche educator who joined Loveland ski patrol as some of the first rescuers on the scene Saturday, said "it was more like 16 feet deep."

"We didn't even feel him on the end of the probe," said Morris, a former avalanche center forecaster who spent years studying snowpack in the Sheep Creek drainage.

Morris dug a 10-foot pit over the beacon signal and started probing again. A veteran avalanche rescuer, Morris said the hole "was about the deepest I've ever dug" for a rescue.

Two of victims were wearing avalanche airbag packs that were not deployed. Others were wearing Avalungs, which allow buried avalanche victims to breath through a hose, but none had the Avalung mouthpiece in their mouths.

The report concluded that the group had selected terrain that was less likely to produce a devastating avalanche, "but to get there they traveled through a dangerous area."

"Large, destructive"

"Unfortunately, the travel technique employed to mitigate the risk was not effective for the size of the avalanche that released," said the report. " The only effective travel technique for this avalanche problem is to avoid areas where deep slabs might release, or if the risk is deemed acceptable, expose a single group member to the danger. Spreading out often does not mitigate the risk to the group because these avalanches are always large and destructive."